After its freshman season ended with the deaths of its two lead characters played by Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott, the drama will be completely rebooted as an anthology series and feature a new cast, location and premise. While Season 1 cast members Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe will return, they’ll be playing the opposite of the characters they embodied in the first year of the FX series.

“[Season 2] is set on the East Coast at an institution for the criminally insane that is run by Jessica,” Murphy said Wednesday during a panel promoting the series at the TV Academy in North Hollywood.

Murphy had previously teased that a clue to the second season location could be found in AHS’ “Birth” episode and confirmed on Wednesday that the hint was “something that Sarah Paulson’s character, Billie Dean, says to Jessica and Taisa as she’s sage-ing the house and talking about places where evil collects: We talk about institutions and prisons and things like that. That was the clue.”

Paulson told The Hollywood Reporter at PaleyFest last month that the telling scene featured her character, medium Billie Dean, who, in the episode in question, explained to Violet (Taissa Farmiga) that the house had a paramagnetic grip — like a battery, with negative energy that feeds on trauma and draws things to it. Pressed at the time if the scene in question involved the energy that’s often found in prisons or asylums, Paulson added: “I can’t say the answer to that but I think you’re warm.”

In addition to the East Coast institution for the criminally insane, the second season will also find the cast in a new era, Murphy said. “It’s a completely different world and has nothing to do with Season 1; there’s not a mention of Season 1,” he noted. “The second season is set in a completely different time period.”

In addition to the five returning cast members, Murphy teased that there could also be more familiar faces from Season 1 set to take on new characters when the series returns in the fall, with a few possibly in attendance Wednesday. “The idea is to work with actors that you love and are excited by. The second season, everybody who was announced, there will be other people up on this stage who are not announced who will also be in it but are playing the polar opposite of what they were in the first season in every way,” he said.

Murphy was joined on stage by cast members including Britton (Vivien), McDermott (Ben), Alexandra Breckenridge (Moira), Denis O’Hare (Larry), Peters (Tate), Quinto (Chad), Lange (Constance), Rabe (Nora) and co-creator Brad Falchuk and exec producer Dante Di Loreto.

The producers were also tight-lipped on whether or not Quinto could play one of the criminally insane, only saying “maybe,” while the Star Trek actor — who was sporting Spock eyebrows — embraced the opportunity to do something new. “The notion of coming back and playing something totally different and in a totally different world with many of the same actors, it’s probably one of the more exciting things that has come across my plate in recent years,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

As for new cast member Adam Levine, Murphy revealed that The Voice judge signed on immediately after hearing of the role. “He’s a sexy guy so he needs to play a sexy guy, but the guy that is different than who you think he would play,” he said. “I pitched him the part and he listened, slack jawed, and simply said, ‘I’m in.’ The second season is fun, sexy and baroque. It has a lot of meat to it; it’s a really gritty part. He’s with a girl and they play characters called The Lovers.”

More details — including whether or not French actress Lizzie Brochere will play a nemesis for Lange’s character — could emerge soon as producers are set to present their vision for Season 2 to FX next week.

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STEVEN BAUER
Breaking Bad (AMC)

ORLA BRADY
Fringe (Fox)

MARK MARGOLIS
Breaking Bad (AMC)

EDWARD JAMES OLMOS
Dexter (Showtime)

ZACHARY QUINTO
American Horror Story (F/X)

TOM SKERRITT
Leverage (TNT)

American Horror Story was also nominated as Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series. Check the full list of nominees here.

Zachary Quinto, who did a scene-stealing four-episode arc on the first season of the Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuk drama as the Harmon house’s doomed former co-owner Chad Warwick, will be back as a series regular in Season 2, joining Jessica Lange. Like Lange, he will play a brand new character next season, which is set at an East Coast institution. What’s more, I have learned that Quinto will play one of two male leads and the nemesis to Lange’s character, which will be at the center of the Season 2 storyline. The part is sure to draw parallels to Quinto’s breakout role as uber-villain Syler on Heroes.

While Lange had been expected to return — she confirmed ongoing negotiations at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, where she won for her performance on the show, Quinto’s return had been kept under wraps until now. Quinto and Murphy are friends; that’s how Quinto’s original stint on the show came about. After the critical praise Quinto received for his arc, he was open to coming back. “I had an amazing time and I only did four episodes of the season, so it was just a little bit of an appetiser for me; I would love to work more,” he said in an online interview last month. An anthology series like AHS is perfectly suited for Quinto, who wants to keep a hand in television but, busy as an actor and producer on the feature side, can’t make the 5-6-year commitment required on a regular series.

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You’ll find screen captures of latest episode, Birth, in the gallery. I totally LOVE Chad, and every episode I can love him more. Check it:

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“We love you in American Horror Story,” we gushed to recently-outed actor Zachary Quinto last night. We were at the Andaz Hotel, where directors, producers, and actors (along with alcohol sponsors) gathered to toast the winners of Gotham Independent Film Awards, held earlier that evening at Cipriani’s. We had cornered Mr. Quinto, whose movie Margin Call was nominated for Best Ensemble Performance (though it lost out to Beginners).

“I’m only going to be on one more episode,” the ethereally attractive actor told us.
“But you’re already dead! They can’t kill you off!” (It’s true…Ryan Murphy‘s dead characters have more screen time then the living.)

Mr. Quinto mulled it over while scanning the room for a quick exit strategy. “Sure…I guess dying on that show is more like job security.”

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According to Entertainment Weekly, Quinto and Sears will be back—and pretty soon too! They’re going to reappear in episode 8, “Rubber Man,” which “is all about the titular figure. Part of that episode will be revealing just who he is. Rubber Man is an important figure in their past—he did kill them, after all. What will bring them back? Whatever it is, it’s nothing but good news that they are returning. There’s bound to be some more arguing when they show up again; will they be able to offer some information about Rubber Man? After the latest American Horror Story episode, the promo shown was all about Vivien’s pregnancy—specifically, just what’s going on with that baby? Vivien and Ben’s marriage is in trouble—she kicked him out—but will she let him get close again after she wonders just what’s going on with what she presumes is his baby? Will she find out the truth?

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